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Seated dips okay for upper chest?

Zero Tolerance

Registered User
I've been training for three months straight. That's usually about all I get before I have to stop and let my shoulders heal. I need impingement surgery on both shoulders. I'd rather not go the surgical route as that'll likely have me out of the gym for at least half a year.

Today, I felt pain in my right shoulder upon doing dumbell presses. I jumped onto flat bench and was fine. Next up was incline presses - and that hurt too. However, I cannot do incline barbell presses anymore because they also hurt my shoulders.

I did the incline hammer strength machine - but was left feeling incomplete. I moved over to the seated dip machine and did my best to get an upper chest workout with it. It seemed okay..

I weigh 240lbs and can't do much for dips other than with a seated machine. Remember, I haven't been able to lift for more than 3 months straight without a couple of months off-time in years. I'm not very strong.

Does anyone have any advice on how to best work the upper chest with a seated dip machine? I have a funny feeling it may need to be an important part of my upper chest routine as I go heavier - and overhead presses with heavy weight are slowly becoming non optional.

This is the machine I use (it's got various grips):
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Life is a funny thing. I'm blessed with the genetics of a steroid animal - but cursed with a bone structure that has never allowed me to lift heavy...
 
its hard to tell your form in that video. from the looks of it, your head is forward, which is good. can't tell if your butt is as far back as possible. so long as you're doing that, there's no reason you can't do dips on that machine.

as soon as your body becomes fairly straight, you're using more triceps, which from the looks of you, you already know :)
 
I'm sorry, SunCloud. That's not me in the video. I'm in my avatar (minus Bob of Enzyte fame). That's just a video I found on YouTube.. What I'm doing with these dips is leaning forward instead of sitting straight up (which would work my triceps more directly). So it appears you feel I'm doing the right thing to focus on my chest...

Rodja.. What part of my pecs will dips hit? Mid-upper chest?
 
Lower-mid part. They are almost interchangeable with decline press, but require more core/stabilizer strength. It's a more effective movement, IMO.
 
Rodja said:
The motion from dips will not help to hit the pecs near the clavicle.
Click to expand...

I would say the opposite. The Pectoralis has only one insert, so the upper/mid/lower Pectoralis issue is moot, IMO. This being said, Gironda-style dips are preferable to standard dips in respects to activating the chest. Gironda dips are with the legs straightforward in front of you, arms stationed forward of the center of gravity. This causes more chest activation v., tricep and shoulder activation.
 
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